Associate Professor Notar, Chair; Professor Nadel-Klein∙∙ and Charles A. Dana Research Professor Trostle; Assistant Professor Hussain†; Visiting Assistant Professors Beebe and DiVietro; Visiting Lecturer Johnson
The anthropology major at Trinity focuses on cultural anthropology, which is the interpretive study of human beings as they are culturally constituted and as they have lived in social groups throughout history and around the world. As such, it is a comprehensive and comparative discipline that embraces human life in all of its diversity and complexity. Broad in focus, it seeks to understand in a non-ethnocentric manner why people—in both “exotic” and familiar settings—do what they do and what accounts for human differences as well as similarities. It asks how people use material and symbolic resources to solve, in often varying ways, the problems of living in the world and with each other. To arrive at their interpretations, anthropologists interweave the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, engaging in continuous dialogues with other disciplines.
Students majoring in anthropology study the discipline’s history, methodology, and contemporary concerns such as globalization, the environment, medicine and public health, urbanization, and economic upheavals. Since non-ethnocentric interpretations require familiarity with a particular cultural context, students also take courses concerning distinct ethnographic areas such as the Caribbean, China, Africa, Europe, North America, and South Asia. In addition, they take courses that emphasize issues of broad human concern, because interpretations of human similarities and differences can be achieved only through cross-cultural comparison. In selecting electives, students may choose either additional anthropology courses or appropriate courses in such cognate departments and programs as international studies, classics, religion, educational studies, music, sociology, and women, gender, and sexuality. Students will consult with their adviser to determine the exact mix of courses that will meet their particular objectives.
For more details on the program’s faculty, requirements, and sources, visit our Web site at www.trincoll.edu/Academics/MajorsAndMinors/anthropology/.
The anthropology major—The major requires 10 courses (11 starting with Class of 2013) with a minimum grade of C-, including:
The Writing Intensive Part II requirement may be fulfilled by taking a 300- or 400-level course in anthropology.
Honors—Students who wish to qualify for honors in anthropology must write a two-credit senior thesis. Honors will be awarded to those whose thesis is granted an A- or better and who have a minimum grade average of B+ for the courses comprising their major.
Fall Term
201. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology— This course introduces the theory and method of cultural anthropology as applied to the analysis of specific cultures. The focus will be on the analysis of specific cultures and case studies of societies from different ethnographic areas. Topics to be considered include ritual and symbol systems, gender, family and kinship, reciprocity and exchange, inequality and hierarchy, cultural intrusion and resistance, and social change. (Enrollment limited)-Beebe, DiVietro, Johnson
215. Medical Anthropology— This course covers major topics in medical anthropology, including biocultural analyses of health and disease, the social patterning of disease, cultural critiques of biomedicine, and non-Western systems of healing. We will explore the major theoretical schools in medical anthropology, and see how they have been applied to specific pathologies, life processes, and social responses. Finally we will explore and critique how medical anthropology has been applied to health care in the United States and internationally. The course will sensitize students to cultural issues in sickness and health care, and provide some critical analytic concepts and tools. Prerequisite: Anthropology 201 or other Anthropology course or Permission of Instructor. (Enrollment limited)-Trostle
[228. Anthropology from the Margins of South Asia]— This course will examine how the northwestern and northern mountainous regions of South Asia have been constructed in the Western popular imagination, both in literary texts and in academic debates. Starting with the era of the Great Game in the late 19th century and ending with the current “war on terror,” the course will explore the transformation and continuation of past social and political conditions, and their representations within the region. This will help illuminate some of the enduring themes in anthropological debates, such as culture contact; empires, territories, and resources; and human agency. (Enrollment limited)
241. Women in the Caribbean— This course explores the diverse lives of women of the Caribbean. We will begin with feminist theories of women and power and trace how those understandings have emerged and changed over time. We will use ethnographies to examine women’s lives in both historical and contemporary Caribbean settings, and explore major theoretical approaches in feminist and Caribbean anthropology. We will analyze how women’s experiences have been shaped by multiple forces, including slavery and emancipation, fertility and constructs of motherhood, gender and violence, race and identity, tourism and sex work, illness and poverty, globalization and labor. (Enrollment limited)-DiVietro
[252. Identities in Britain and Ireland]— This course takes a close look at social diversity within Britain (England, Scotland, Wales), and Ireland (Northern and Eire). It will examine how class, race, ethnicity, gender, and region affect people’s sense of identity and participation as citizens within their nations and within the European Union. It will also investigate the ways communities are represented or represent themselves through tourism, heritage sites, and museums. Overall, the course engages the question of how a society does or does not transcend “difference.” (Enrollment limited)
[253. Urban Anthropology]— This course will trace the social scientific (especially ethnographic and cultural) study of the modern city from its roots in the Industrial Revolution through the current urban transformations brought about by advanced capitalism and globalization. Why are cities organized as they are? How does their organization shape, and get shaped by, everyday practices of city inhabitants? This course will explore the roles of institutional actors (such as governments and corporations) in urban organization, and the effects of economic change,immigration, and public policy on the social organization and built environment of cities. It will examine social consequences of cities, including economic inequality, racial stratification, community formation, poverty, and urban social movements. Though it will focus on American urbanism, this course will also be international and ethnographic. (Enrollment limited)
[254. The Meaning of Work]— This course takes a cross-cultural look at the ways in which people define work in daily life. Drawing upon diverse sources, including ethnography, fiction, biography and investigative journalism, it will examine the ways in which people labor to make a living and to sustain their households. Students will consider such key questions as: What makes work meaningful? How are occupational communities formed? How is work gendered? How have global forces reshaped the nature of work? How do people experience the lack of work? Examples will be drawn from different work environments, including mining, fishing, agriculture, industry, service work, domestic work and intellectual work. (Enrollment limited)
[256. Anthropology of Reproduction]— This course is a study of the biological and social contexts of human reproduction throughout time and across cultures. It examines how sex, pregnancy, and childbirth are interconnected with power, class, evolution, gender, and religion. The anthropology of reproduction builds upon the insights of cultural, medical and biological anthropology and emphasizes the ways in which social and cultural experiences can shape biological experiences of reproduction. Weekly seminar discussions will explore cross-cultural perspectives on childbearing, infertility, abortion, global maternal health, and new reproductive technologies. Students will also discuss the roles of men and fathers in reproduction and question why reproduction has been mainly been addressed as a concern of women. (Enrollment limited)
[301. Ethnographic Methods and Writing]— This course will acquaint students with a range of research methods commonly used by anthropologists, and with the types of questions and designs that justify their use. It will describe a subset of methods (individual and group interviewing, and observation) in more detail, and give students practice in their use, analysis, and presentation. Through accompanying readings, the course will expose students to the controversies surrounding the practice of ethnography and the presentation of ethnographic authority. Students will conduct group field research projects during the course, and will develop and write up research proposals for projects they themselves could carry out in a summer or semester. It is recommended that students have already taken an anthropology course. (Enrollment limited)
302. History of Anthropological Thought— This course explores the anthropological tradition as it has changed from the late 19th century until the present. Students will read works of the major figures in the development of the discipline, such as Bronislaw Malinowski, Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, and Claude Levi-Strauss. They will learn not only what these anthropologists had to say about reality, but why they said it when they did. In this sense, the course turns an anthropological eye on anthropology itself. (Enrollment limited)-Nadel-Klein
303. Urban China— What does it mean to live in one of the fastest growing cities in the fastest growing economy in the world? This course focuses on understanding the complex and ongoing transformations of Chinese cities, examining such topics as contestations over the urban environment and “public” space, the rise of China’s new middle class, new consumption patterns, rural to urban migration, and spaces of youth culture. Course materials will include ethnographies, journal and newspaper articles as well as documentary and feature film clips (Enrollment limited)-Notar
308. Anthropology of Place— This course explores the increasingly complex ways in which people in industrial and non-industrial societies locate themselves with respect to land and landscape. Contrary to some widespread assumptions regarding the fit between identity and place (i.e., ethnicity and nationalism), we study a range of settings in which people actively construct, contest, and reappropriate the spaces of modern life. Through texts, seminar discussions, films, and a field-based research project as the major exercise, students will explore a number of issues, including cultural persistence and the loss of place; the meaning of the frontier and indigenous land rights struggles; gender and public space; the deterritorialization of culture (i.e., McDonald’s in Hong Kong); and the cultural costs of an increasingly “fast” and high-tech world. (Enrollment limited)-Nadel-Klein
[310. Anthropology of Development]— This seminar will explore international economic and social development from an anthropological perspective. We will critically examine concepts of development, underdevelopment, and progress. We will compare how multilateral lenders and small nongovernmental organizations employ development rhetoric and methods. We will examine specific case studies of development projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, asking what has been attained, and what is attainable. (Enrollment limited)
399. Independent Study— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and chair are required for enrollment. (0.5-2 course credit) -Staff
466. Teaching Assistantship— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment. (0.5-1 course credit) -Staff
497. Senior Thesis— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment in this single-semester thesis. (1 course credit to be completed in one semester.) -Staff
498. Senior Thesis Part 1— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for each semester of this year long thesis. (2 course credits are considered pending in the first semester; 2 course credits will be awarded for completion in the second semester.) (2 course credits) -Staff
499. Senior Thesis Part 2— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and program director are required for each semester of this yearlong thesis. (2 course credits are considered pending in the first semester; 2 course credits will be awarded for completion in the second semester.) (2 course credits) -Staff
Courses Originating in Other Departments
Educational Studies 316. Education and Social Change Across the Globe— View course description in department listing on p. 382. Prerequisite: a passing grade in a prior Educational Studies or International Studies Course. -Dyrness
[Educational Studies 320. Anthropology and Education]— View course description in department listing on p. 382. Prerequisite: A C- or better in Education 200 or Anthropology 201or permission of the instructor.
[International Studies 218. Women, Gender, and Family in the Middle East]— View course description in department listing on p. 570.
[International Studies 234. Gender and Education]— View course description in department listing on p. 570.
[International Studies 249. Immigrants and Refugees: Strangers in Strange Lands]— View course description in department listing on p. 570.
[International Studies 262. Peoples and Culture of the Caribbean]— View course description in department listing on p. 571.
International Studies 311. Global Feminism— View course description in department listing on p. 572. -Bauer
Religion 281. Anthropology of Religion— View course description in department listing on p. 796. -Beebe
[Religion 285. Religions of Africa]— View course description in department listing on p. 797.
[Religion 290. Spiritual Movements in Contemporary America]— View course description in department listing on p. 797.
Spring Term
201. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology— This course introduces the theory and method of cultural anthropology as applied to the analysis of specific cultures. The focus will be on the analysis of specific cultures and case studies of societies from different ethnographic areas. Topics to be considered include ritual and symbol systems, gender, family and kinship, reciprocity and exchange, inequality and hierarchy, cultural intrusion and resistance, and social change. (Enrollment limited)-Hussain, Trostle
[207. Anthropological Perspectives of Women and Gender]— Using texts and films, this course will explore the nature of women’s lives in both the contemporary United States and a number of radically different societies around the world, including, for example, the !Kung San people of the Kalahari and the Mundurucù of Amazonian Brazil. As they examine the place of women in these societies, students will also be introduced to theoretical perspectives that help explain both variations in women’s status from society to society and “universal” aspects of their status. (Enrollment limited)
227. Introduction to Political Ecology— This course covers social science approaches to issues concerning ecology, the environment, and nature. It looks at how social identities and cultural meaning are symbolically tied to the physical environment. Ecology and the environment are affected by larger political, social, and economic forces, so we will also broaden the analysis to include wider spatial and temporal scales. The course will also examine how sociology and geography relate to political ecology. Regional foci will include South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. (Enrollment limited)-Hussain
[228. Anthropology from the Margins of South Asia]— This course will examine how the northwestern and northern mountainous regions of South Asia have been constructed in the Western popular imagination, both in literary texts and in academic debates. Starting with the era of the Great Game in the late 19th century and ending with the current “war on terror,” the course will explore the transformation and continuation of past social and political conditions, and their representations within the region. This will help illuminate some of the enduring themes in anthropological debates, such as culture contact; empires, territories, and resources; and human agency. (Enrollment limited)
[237. Indigenous Social Movements in Latin America]— This course examines the meaning of “being indigenous” in Latin America. What complex questions of power are indigenous movements addressing and challenging, and where are these movements happening? While indigenous social movements have independently gained strength in diverse settings, they share common elements of history, politics, and culture. Most prominent among these are a legacy of colonialism and the nature of coloniality, and a daily negotiation of identities within the context of multicultural and intercultural societies. In recent years, indigenous peoples in Latin America have assumed a greater role in the politics of their respective nation-states, leading to their unprecedented condition as active, decision making protagonists in their unfolding histories. (Enrollment limited)
238. Economic Anthropology— We often assume that culture and the economy are separate, but all economic transactions contain cultural dimensions, and all cultural institutions exhibit economic features. This course provides an introduction to key debates and contemporary issues in economic anthropology. We will consider differences in the organization of production, distribution, and consumption in both subsistence and market economies and examine ways in which anthropologists have theorized these differences. Topics for discussion will include cultural conceptions of property and ownership, social transitions to market economies, the meanings of shopping, and the commodification of bodies and body parts such as organs and blood. Course materials will draw from ethnographic studies, newspaper articles, and documentary films. (Enrollment limited)-Staff
245. Anthropology and Global Health— This course examines the growing collaborative and critical roles of anthropology applied to international health. Anthropologists elicit disease taxonomies, describe help-seeking strategies, critique donor models, and design behavioral interventions. They ask about borders and the differences among conceptions of health and disease as global, international, or domestic topics. These issues will be explored through case studies of specific diseases, practices, therapies, agencies, and policies. (Enrollment limited)-DiVietro
[247. China through Film]— Film provides a vital medium for understanding changes in Chinese society and culture. Film illustrates shifts in political and economic systems, and reveals changes in the possibilities of individual and collective expression. In China, film has been used both as a tool of the state and as an implement of cultural critique. This course surveys five decades of Chinese film, focusing primarily on mainland films, but also looking at films from Hong Kong and Taiwan. No knowledge of Chinese language is necessary for the course. (Enrollment limited)
253. Urban Anthropology— This course will trace the social scientific (especially ethnographic and cultural) study of the modern city from its roots in the Industrial Revolution through the current urban transformations brought about by advanced capitalism and globalization. Why are cities organized as they are? How does their organization shape, and get shaped by, everyday practices of city inhabitants? This course will explore the roles of institutional actors (such as governments and corporations) in urban organization, and the effects of economic change,immigration, and public policy on the social organization and built environment of cities. It will examine social consequences of cities, including economic inequality, racial stratification, community formation, poverty, and urban social movements. Though it will focus on American urbanism, this course will also be international and ethnographic. (Enrollment limited)-Beebe
[257. The Social Context of Health and Disease in Latin America]— This course examines the history and current status of health and disease in Latin America from a perspective that is social, rather than biological or medical. We start by affirming that the primary causes of ill health are structural—related to economic, political, and cultural determinants, resulting in health disparities and inequalities— and then show how this concept of “social medicine” is developed within the Latin American context. In studying a regional history marked by an ongoing legacy of colonialism, in addition to influential movements for social justice and human rights, we analyze national health systems and reforms ranging from market based to socialist. We also discuss the dichotomy between biomedicine and traditional medicine in the region, focusing on a model of “intercultural health.” (Enrollment limited)
284. The Anthropology of Violence— This course approaches the study of violence through texts, case studies, and films. Does aggression come from biology, culture or both? How is violence defined cross culturally? What constitutes legitimate violence? How has violence been used throughout history to establish, maintain and subvert power? We will examine forms of violence including state violence, war, interpersonal and domestic violence. We will also explore the consequences of violence on health, community and culture. (Enrollment limited)-Beebe
300. Junior Seminar in Contemporary Anthropology— A half credit seminar designed for anthropology majors in their junior year, open also to sophomore majors who will be studying abroad when this course is offered in their junior year. This course is designed to build knowledge of the discipline and practice of anthropology, including contemporary debates, the publication process for scholarly literature, and other types of dissemination. Skills will be developed in research design and proposal writing. Prerequisite: Anthropology major or Permission of Instructor. (0.5 course credit) (Enrollment limited)-Nadel-Klein
301. Ethnographic Methods and Writing— This course will acquaint students with a range of research methods commonly used by anthropologists, and with the types of questions and designs that justify their use. It will describe a subset of methods (individual and group interviewing, and observation) in more detail, and give students practice in their use, analysis, and presentation. Through accompanying readings, the course will expose students to the controversies surrounding the practice of ethnography and the presentation of ethnographic authority. Students will conduct group field research projects during the course, and will develop and write up research proposals for projects they themselves could carry out in a summer or semester. It is recommended that students have already taken an anthropology course. Prerequisite: Anthropology major or Permission of Instructor. (Enrollment limited)-Notar
[308. Anthropology of Place]— This course explores the increasingly complex ways in which people in industrial and non-industrial societies locate themselves with respect to land and landscape. Contrary to some widespread assumptions regarding the fit between identity and place (i.e., ethnicity and nationalism), we study a range of settings in which people actively construct, contest, and reappropriate the spaces of modern life. Through texts, seminar discussions, films, and a field-based research project as the major exercise, students will explore a number of issues, including cultural persistence and the loss of place; the meaning of the frontier and indigenous land rights struggles; gender and public space; the deterritorialization of culture (i.e., McDonald’s in Hong Kong); and the cultural costs of an increasingly “fast” and high-tech world. (Enrollment limited)
399. Independent Study— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and chair are required for enrollment. (0.5-2 course credit) -Staff
401. Advanced Seminar in Contemporary Anthropology— Anthropologists are a contentious lot, often challenging the veracity and relevance of each other’s interpretations. In this seminar, students will examine recent manifestations of this vexatiousness. The seminar will consider such questions as: Can culture be regarded as collective and shared? What is the relationship between cultural ideas and practical action? How does one study culture in the postmodern world of “the celluloid, global ethnoscape”? Can the practice of anthropology be fully objective, or does it demand a politics—an understanding that ideas, ours and theirs, are historically situated, politicized realities? Is domination the same everywhere? Prerequisite: Anthropology major or Permission of Instructor. (Enrollment limited)-Hussain, Trostle
466. Teaching Assistantship— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment. (0.5-1 course credit) -Staff
497. Senior Thesis— Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment in this single-semester thesis. (1 course credit to be completed in one semester.) -Staff
Courses Originating in Other Departments
Art History 294. The Arts of Africa— View course description in department listing on p. 471. -Gilbert
[Educational Studies 307. Latinos in Education: Local Realities, Transnational Perspectives]— View course description in department listing on p. 384. Prerequisite: EDUC200 or INTS/LACS majors or Hispanic Studies majors or Anthropology majors or Permission of Instructor.
[Educational Studies 320. Anthropology and Education]— View course description in department listing on p. 385. Prerequisite: A C- or better in Education 200 or Anthropology 201or permission of the instructor.
International Studies 218. Women, Gender, and Family in the Middle East— View course description in department listing on p. 577. -Bauer
International Studies 262. Peoples and Culture of the Caribbean— View course description in department listing on p. 578. -Desmangles
[International Studies 307. Women’s Rights as Human Rights]— View course description in department listing on p. 579.
[Linguistics 101. Introduction to Linguistics]— View course description in department listing on p. 652.
[Music 222. Investigating Music and Culture]— View course description in department listing on p. 686. Prerequisite: Music 113, 215, 219, 220, or Permission of Instructor.
[Religion 281. Anthropology of Religion]— View course description in department listing on p. 800.
Religion 290. Spiritual Movements in Contemporary America— View course description in department listing on p. 800. -Desmangles